*Project Co-Produced with Ryan Kocourek

The Kleingarten Datum

Faced with an unfamiliar site, we began our process by scanning the existing context, searching for a datum set that could provide a relevant rhythm and density from which to pull a new organizational principle for this proposed alternative to suburban sprawl. Immediately adjacent to the greenfield site, a former livestock research and grazing facility, sits an expansive example of a uniquely Austrian phenomenon: The Kliengarten. These small fenced off yards began as a way to provide individual crop space to urban dwellers but have transformed to become the worst example of american suburban yard-design, compressed an repeated. The gardening sheds have also transformed and turned into small, all under 1200 sqft, rather well appointed, homes. For many kleingarten owners the former tool hut is becoming their primary home. ________________________ After mapping a series of these gardens we began to isolate a repetitive figure ground relationship between enclosure and land and to understand the narrow range of lot sizes in this unique housing typology. The kleingarten lot is usually about 12 meters long and 6-12 meters wide. Instead of simply extending all the variants onto the site we choose to use three averaged widths as our baseline grain 6,9, an 12 meter strips were pulled across our new site.
An Infrastructural Surface
In conjunction with this housing-scale research we developed a new idea of “the block” for this kind of undeveloped greenfield. By extending-out, level from the existing western high-point in the landscape we created a new ground that could start flush with the old-ground and end 4 meters over-head at the eastern end of the block. This can be understood as an infrastructural plate, holding all the necessary utilities and service tie-ins for the eventual building up of units on the “block”. By unifying the services we create an economy of scale and construction far more efficient than the ad-hoc construction of single family homes. The underside of the plate provides new space for retail and services creating a neighborhood destination instead of an isolated development.






Circulation: Existing to New Ground

The site responsive plate of the new Urban Surface created in this Scheme must be accessed by a network of paths to function as usable space for those in and outside the community. The Plate begins at grade on the west side of the site and there it reads simply as a ground treatment: slats sunk into turf. Everywhere else it must fold down its edges to invite the public onto new ground. Within the plate access is more regularized along a north-south axis, using stairs and ramps to pull users from the center below onto the plate. These are marked in orange on the diagrams to the right

For access from plate to roof garden, or the second unit-deployment, we devised a series of staircases along a east-west axis to clearly communicate vertical circulation throughout the development. These appear in red on the diagrams to the below.



Making The Rules and Living by Them: Codes and the Living Field
Master Plan Deployment